(no subject)
rzyna has been poking me to update more often, so I suppose this is as good a time as any.
While I've been reading awesome anime con reports from a lot of my f-list, I've got a con of my own to report. Not quite the same kind of con though.
So yeah, I went to a knitting convention with my friend Meghan at work. We drove up Friday morning and spent the entire day there, which was actually really difficult considering that I normally sleep during the day. But it was my weekend, so at least I had another day to recover before coming in to work Saturday night.
Stitches Midwest was in the Rosemont convention center in Chicago, which is where ACEN is normally held, so I was more used to seeing the halls filled with cosplayers. Instead, I was surrounded by women brandishing pointy needles. But considering the fact I was carrying a set of my own pointy needles, I wasn't too worried. I was afraid Meghan and I would be the youngest ones there, but that wasn't actually the case. The average age of the crowd seemed to be 30s and 40s, with some younger like us and some older. Almost entirely women, but there were a few men. I'm not going to guess at the percentage of straight men in that group, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be very high.
We went just to go to the dealers room, as we didn't have the time or money to attend any of the classes. And boy, was the dealers room enough! It took us 6 hours to explore the whole thing, and by that time my eyes were beginning to glaze over. You can only look at so many skeins of yarn before they aren't exciting any longer. There was some really gorgeous stuff though, and of course I spent way more money than I should have. Bought mostly sock yarn, as I wasn't looking for anything specific for a project. I have enough projects at home waiting to be worked on!
I think my favorite sock yarn purchase has to be Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. This is the Fire on the Mountain colorway, and it's even prettier in real life:
The other colorway I got from them is called Lagoon, and I'm thinking about making a pair of gloves from it:
I ended up finding a pattern I just loved. I've been getting the urge to work on lacy shawls and things, even though I have no patience for how long something like that takes, nor do I have any idea what I'd do with it later. (Who wears shawls anymore anyway? Especially light lacy ones that wouldn't hold *any* heat?) But I finally gave in - with Meghan's urging, as usual - once I found a pattern that was so pretty I just had to buy it. Forgive the shitty picture, I'm too lazy to retake it.
So of course I had to get some yarn to match. Laceweight Schaefer, 100% silk. Boy, *this* wasn't cheap!
Most of the sock yarn I bought was bright and colorful. Mountain Colors makes some gorgeous yarns, but I liked this one the best. It's called Sunburst:
We had a really good time, despite the aching feet and total exhaustion when I got home! Now I just have to find the time to *do* something with all this yarn!
While I've been reading awesome anime con reports from a lot of my f-list, I've got a con of my own to report. Not quite the same kind of con though.
So yeah, I went to a knitting convention with my friend Meghan at work. We drove up Friday morning and spent the entire day there, which was actually really difficult considering that I normally sleep during the day. But it was my weekend, so at least I had another day to recover before coming in to work Saturday night.
Stitches Midwest was in the Rosemont convention center in Chicago, which is where ACEN is normally held, so I was more used to seeing the halls filled with cosplayers. Instead, I was surrounded by women brandishing pointy needles. But considering the fact I was carrying a set of my own pointy needles, I wasn't too worried. I was afraid Meghan and I would be the youngest ones there, but that wasn't actually the case. The average age of the crowd seemed to be 30s and 40s, with some younger like us and some older. Almost entirely women, but there were a few men. I'm not going to guess at the percentage of straight men in that group, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be very high.
We went just to go to the dealers room, as we didn't have the time or money to attend any of the classes. And boy, was the dealers room enough! It took us 6 hours to explore the whole thing, and by that time my eyes were beginning to glaze over. You can only look at so many skeins of yarn before they aren't exciting any longer. There was some really gorgeous stuff though, and of course I spent way more money than I should have. Bought mostly sock yarn, as I wasn't looking for anything specific for a project. I have enough projects at home waiting to be worked on!
I think my favorite sock yarn purchase has to be Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. This is the Fire on the Mountain colorway, and it's even prettier in real life:
The other colorway I got from them is called Lagoon, and I'm thinking about making a pair of gloves from it:
I ended up finding a pattern I just loved. I've been getting the urge to work on lacy shawls and things, even though I have no patience for how long something like that takes, nor do I have any idea what I'd do with it later. (Who wears shawls anymore anyway? Especially light lacy ones that wouldn't hold *any* heat?) But I finally gave in - with Meghan's urging, as usual - once I found a pattern that was so pretty I just had to buy it. Forgive the shitty picture, I'm too lazy to retake it.
So of course I had to get some yarn to match. Laceweight Schaefer, 100% silk. Boy, *this* wasn't cheap!
Most of the sock yarn I bought was bright and colorful. Mountain Colors makes some gorgeous yarns, but I liked this one the best. It's called Sunburst:
We had a really good time, despite the aching feet and total exhaustion when I got home! Now I just have to find the time to *do* something with all this yarn!